Soaking Up the Fun of Summer; Atlantic Beaches Ready for Seasonal Influx

Byline: Charles Hoskinson, SPECIAL TO THE WASHINGTON TIMES

REHOBOTH BEACH, Del. - On a summer weekend, the traffic in downtown Rehoboth Beach makes it seem like Interstate 395 at rush hour. Even as you catch the first glint of sunlight reflecting from the ocean's surface, you're not as close as you think.

Cars are lined up bumper to bumper from Delaware Route 1 to the end of Rehoboth Avenue at the boardwalk, slowly circling the downtown area as drivers scan the precious few public parking spaces for signs one might come vacant. None of them is empty, of course, and the boardwalk seems tantalizingly out of reach as the odors of caramel corn and french fries mix with exhaust fumes and a cacophonous blend of country, heavy-metal and rap music from open car windows.

This is what happens when the Washington area empties many of its millions of residents on a small town. Between Memorial Day and Labor Day, the 1,495 people who live in the 1-square-mile area of downtown Rehoboth Beach are swamped each weekend with an average of 30,000 to 60,000 visitors. Even on summer weekdays and on winter weekends, the number of weekend visitors is at least three times the town's resident population.

The 35-mile-long stretch of Atlantic Ocean coastline between Cape Henlopen, Del., and the southern tip of Ocean City has for decades been the Washington area's most popular destination for beach getaways.

This year could be the busiest ever if the weather holds. Carol Everhart, president of the Rehoboth-Dewey Beach Chamber of …

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Publication information: Article title: Soaking Up the Fun of Summer; Atlantic Beaches Ready for Seasonal Influx. Contributors: Not available. Newspaper title: The Washington Times (Washington, DC). Publication date: May 27, 2004. Page number: M14. © 2009 The Washington Times LLC. COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group.

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